MEMORIAL

Lynn Keith Raske

September 1, 1950 to January 27, 2017

 

As little boys, Lynn and I knew each other through the Methodist Church in St. Louis, Michigan. That’s right, St. Louis, Michigan; as in Middle of the Mitten. He was my best friend from junior high through high school. He was everything that I wasn’t; athletic, confident and outgoing. Even though I was 5 days older than him, and I would remind him of that from time to time, he was like a big brother to me.

Lynn always seemed to know what to say and do. He would advise me on my “girl problems”. He even taught me how to slow dance. Not by verbal instructions and display of dance steps mind you, but by actually dancing with me. I don’t remember for sure, but probably Lynn led. Not many teenage boys would have done that.

Lynn loved sports. In junior high, he introduced me to a new game; dice baseball. One summer we created our own dice baseball league with six teams. We played a whole season complete with an All Star game and World Series. We kept track of all the statistics like batting average and ERA. Decades later, I found out that others have done the same thing. But for me, Lynn’s was the original.

Lynn grew up on a farm. One summer, when we were in high school, Lynn’s Dad Phil, hired us to weed a bean field. Ugh. It was hot and sticky, and the field had to be at least a mile long. Phil dropped us off with hoes and gave us some quick instructions. I’m not sure if he made any money on that crop because I kept weeding the bean plants instead of the weeds.

Lynn was always looking out for me. The summer before our senior year of high school,

my Dad got a job in Kentucky so my parents were going to move. Rather than uproot me for my last year of high school, they made arrangements with Lynn’s parents for me to live with them. Lynn’s room had a double bed, not a queen or a king, but a double. So that year, Lynn had to share his bed with me. What a guy!

Lynn was always trying new things. In 1960, the American Football League was just starting as an upstart league that was trying to compete with the original National Football League. He embraced the AFL like the NFL never existed. I couldn’t fathom why he would do such a thing. But that was Lynn.

Regardless of whether he was a teenager or a man, Lynn Keith Raske was ahead of his time. He wanted to try new things. He wanted to be on the cutting edge. As just one small example, long before there were massage therapy chains in every suburban strip mall, Keith became a massage therapist.

Since high school, Keith and I would see each other from time to time. As young marrieds, my wife and I visited Keith and his wife. We would also see each other at class reunions. But, no matter how much time had passed between visits, it was like no time had passed at all.

I wish I could have spent some time with Keith more recently. In fact, I thought I was going to see him again. But no matter how much time passes until our next visit, it will be like no time passed at all.